Change of Heart: Callista's Return
by Durhelediel
Summary: Mara and Luke are confronted with Callista yet again...though this time Callista is determined not to go away so nicely. Luke will be hers...or no one's. COMPLETED
1. Default Chapter

Change of Heart: Callista Returns

Author: Durhelediel

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: Recognizable characters belong to George Lucas. I just like to take them out every now and then.

Dedication: To those who liked the first Change of Heart and wanted to see Mara get a little physical with Callista…I thought it was a good idea too. Lol

Chapter One

            Mara snuggled in close with Luke, content in their year of marriage.  Unfortunately, these moments together came few and far between.  Her job as Talon Karrde's second-in-command was proving to be more time consuming, especially now that he was trying to keep a band of smugglers together in order to ship supplies legitimately to the New Republic and the Empire.  Her life was busily spent flying around, trying to make sure all the smuggler factions were happy and not keeping too much in their pocket that was unnecessary.  

            But then, there were times when her job brought her close to her husband and they could spend a few precious hours together.  They usually didn't waste much time talking, and this visit had not been an exception.

            Now, as their time together drew to a close, Luke propped his head on his mechanical hand and frowned, his eyes glazed slightly.  She could sense him reaching out with the Force.

            "What is it?" She asked, immediately worried.  Luke only had that look on his face when something wasn't quite right…

            His murmured words did nothing to dispel her fears.  "I sense a disturbance in the Force.  But…it's very elusive…almost as if someone is only temporarily connected to the Force and then not for long.  It's…very strange."

            Mara stretched out as well to try to read what he sensed, but in this area of the Force her husband was much more in tune than she.  She was better at picking up subtleties in a person's lie when questioning them.

            He sighed and then laid his head back down.  "It's gone now."

            She pressed her lips together.  "Is it something that is worth trying to find, Luke?"

            "I'm not sure yet," he answered slowly, the glazed look still in his eyes.  Suddenly, his eyes cleared and his brilliant blue orbs were gazing at her.  He smiled at her.  "But I think it will make itself known in time.  For now, we are safe."

            Mara wasn't entirely convinced but let a seductive smile touch her lips.  "Good.  I only have a few hours left, and I want to spend them in an enjoyable manner."

            Luke laughed and drew her to him.

            Mara's ship disappeared into Yavin 4's atmosphere, the only thing of it visible was the white exhaust trail in the blue sky.  He sighed and turned back toward the Jedi Temple.  He had not wanted to worry her earlier so he had might light of what he had sensed.

            In fact, he was deeply worried.  He had sensed something dark and brooding--malevolent--and it was directed at himself…and Mara.  What he had felt had seemed familiar…like someone he had known long ago, but was now oddly twisted and distorted.  Yet, it couldn't be who he thought it was.  She could no longer touch the Force at all.

            Though, she had found out that there was still one aspect of the Force she could touch…and it was the dark side.

            But what would make an older, former Jedi Knight turn to the dark side?

            Right before his and Mara's wedding, she had shown up.  She and Mara had had a conversation on a balcony, and then she had left.  Mara had never exactly told him what had happened, but he could guess.  

            Callista had promised to leave them alone.

            What had changed?

            "Master Skywalker?"

            Luke turned at the sound of the young voice, and placed a smile on his face as he saw one of the Jedi children standing behind him.  It was Wennai Dru'ya, a small Bothan girl who was very strong in the Force.  Her cream-colored fur was standing up along her back, a sign that she was distressed.

            "What is it, little one?" Luke asked, leaning over so he was on eye-level with her.

            Wennai rubbed a hand along her fur, her purple eyes glowing slightly in the dusk of the evening.  "Is Mistress Mara going to be all right?  She didn't say good-bye to us."

            Luke smiled more warmly at her.  "She's fine, Wennai.  She just had to get to her rendezvous on time.  Why do you ask?"

            Wennai gazed up at where Mara's ship had gone.  "I sensed something…something mean, Master Skywalker.  Something that wants to hurt you." Her purple eyes gazed back at him and his blood ran cold.  "Something that will do anything to hurt you."

            Luke nodded, still amazed at how strongly this small child was in the Force.  "I felt it too, Wennai."

            "Are you going to go after her?"

            Luke frowned. "Mara can take care of herself."

            Wennai's fur rippled and she suddenly pressed herself against his right leg.  "Don't let her go alone, Master Skywalker," she pleaded.  "She'll get hurt.  Please?"

            Luke had to work to make his breathing normal.  "Let me talk with the Caretakers and then I'll follow her.  Would that make you feel better, Wennai?"

            Wennai nodded, but still would not let his leg go.  "Please be careful, Master Skywalker.  You're in danger."

            As Luke straightened, his eyes hardened.  He may be in danger, but if anything happened to Mara, whoever did it would be in even greater danger than he.

            "I'll be careful," he promised grimly, gazing again at where Mara's ship had disappeared.  "Very careful."


	2. Chapter Two

Chapter Two

            Mara frowned as she walked lightly down the echoing corridor.  She was in a small spacestation off of the Permelian Trade Route where her rendezvous was scheduled.  She had arrived exactly on time, though with lingering by Luke had pushed her time very close.  She would have preferred to get here early, but she did not regret the time spent with her husband.

            Now she was trying to find her smuggler contact for their monthly meeting.  This small station off of the Permelian Trade Route had been set up years ago by smugglers to divide their cargo if they suspect Imperial activity ahead.  Now it was used by Talon Karrde to have a neutral meeting place for his jumpier smugglers.

            Mara stretched out with the Force to feel where her contact was hiding himself.  This one was a very skittish man who always hid before she called out to him, even if he had glimpsed her coming toward him.  Now, she thought she sensed someone ahead of her to the left.

            "Landon?" She called out gently.  "It's Mara Jade Skywalker.  Come on out."

            Landon Veere's shaky voice came from her left two doors up.  "If you're Mara Skywalker, come up here where I can see you."

            Mara frowned.  He seemed even more skittish than normal.  If it weren't for Karrde and wanting to keep a good rapport going with his smuggler contacts, she would have let this pompous, scared little man have a piece of her mind.  She did not enjoy being ordered around.  She had had enough of that under Palpatine. 

            Sighing, she forced cheer into her voice and answered, "All right, Landon."  She had taken two steps toward the room he was in when the Force screamed a warning at her.

            Without wasting time to think, she ducked and rolled to the right, narrowly avoiding a stun blast.  When she had rolled back to her feet, she pulled her lightsaber free and ignited the familiar blue blade.  This was the lightsaber Luke had given her a few years ago, and she felt closer to him when she had to use it.

            No, not just _felt_ closer…he _was_ closer.  She could sense him approaching, though he would be too far away to help her with whatever this new threat was.

            Pushing his worried sense to the back of her mind for the moment, she pressed herself tightly against the wall of the corridor, her senses alert.  There was no cover of any kind in this small corridor and she mentally cursed Karrde for choosing this bucket of bolts to have a rendezvous in.

            "Give up, Jade," a cold, feminine voice said from the same direction Landon's voice had come from.  "You are outnumbered and have no where to go.  Slide your lightsaber over here."

            Mara scowled.  "If you know me at all, you wouldn't think for a moment I'd give up so easily.  And it's Jade _Skywalker_ now, thank you very much." Her mind raced.  The voice was so familiar…but it couldn't be her.  It just couldn't.  She had promised to stay away from Luke.

            Inwardly, she scoffed at herself.  Since when did she start believing that people actually acted on their promises?  Luke's idealism was rubbing off on her too much.

           The voice hissed, "I will never allow you to keep that last name, _Jade_.  And if you make this difficult for yourself now, it will only make things worse for Luke later on down the road.  If you love him, you don't want that, now do you?"

            There was no doubt now who it was.  Mara stepped fully into the corridor and raised her lightsaber in a defensive position.  "Come on out, Callista.  There are many things that I thought of you, but not one of them was a 'coward'."

            A shrill scream erupted from the room on the left and suddenly the gray-eyed beauty charged into the corridor.  Mara let a smirk cross her lips as they faced each other.

            "Now, 'moldable', that was one I already knew…" She commented, trying to push her opponent past the sight of reason.

            Callista balled her hands into fists, her chest heaving in ire.  "You…" She started.

            "Uh, uh, uh," Mara chided, swinging her glowing blade slightly.  "Be nice."

            Callista glared at her.  "You don't deserve Luke.  You never have.  You were his deadliest enemy and now you dare to be his wife," she hissed at her.  Force lightening played along her knuckles and Mara tensed her body, ready to leap as well as she could in the corridor to avoid the deadly electricity.

            Callista suddenly let her visible anger drain away as she tilted her head to the side. "Ah, Luke approaches.  This is not where I want us to meet again." She regarded Mara once again. "I promise not to harm you until Luke and I speak to each other.  Come with me…don't make this any harder on yourself than it has to be."

            Mara eyed her as if she were crazy…which she wasn't too sure if the other woman wasn't.  "You really should know me better than that.  I don't want to go anywhere with you to become a bargaining tool to get at my husband."

            Callista flinched at her last two words, and anger reappeared in her eyes.  "So be it," she whispered.

            Almost faster than even Mara had suspected, Callista shot a bolt of Force lightening down the corridor.  Mara flattened herself to the floor barely in enough time--she could feel the heat of it pass above her head.  As quickly as she could, she leaped back to her feet, trying to get herself out of the vulnerable position she had had to lodge herself…

            …and got slammed in the chest by a stun beam.

            She gasped and fell flat on the floor, her lightsaber automatically turning itself off as it rolled out of her slack grip.

           Callista stood over her, a cruel smile on her lips.  "Too predictable, even for you, Jade.  You see, I _have _studied you; I know that you try to anger your opponent to make them sloppy and careless.  I also know your fight moves…which you can see.  And now, it's time for you to sleep for a while."

            The light brown-haired woman bent over Mara and suddenly Mara felt the irresistible urge to sleep.  Right before her body rested, she sent out a wordless cry to Luke to stay away.  Then the darkness of dreamless sleep took her.


	3. Chapter Three

Chapter Three

            Luke walked slowly down the seemingly deserted corridor, his lightsaber unlit but ready in his hands.  Echoes lingered in the Force in this corridor; without a doubt, this was where Mara was before she was taken.

            His ice-blue eyes traveled along the durasteel walls, noting the burned scorches at chest level.  When he experimentally touched the soot on the wall, the dark side of the Force practically screamed at him.  

            Someone had taken Mara.

            That thought rebounded through his mind, trying to suck him down into fear and despair.  With an effort, he pushed the emotions away--they led to the dark side.

            "Do you see anyone?" He called softly into the comlink he had placed on his robe's low collar.

            Artoo-Detoo gave a low whistle in reply.  His scanners were picking up just the one lifeform that they had detected while coming in to the station.  Luke had been in a light trance when he had suddenly felt Mara's presence waver, and then disappear completely.  It wasn't death…he was sure he would feel her pain and surprise had it been death.  It had been more like someone was hiding her from him.  Someone strong in the dark side who had an agenda with him…and Mara.

            He had a very short list of suspects as to who that would be.

            "Has it moved?"

            Artoo blatted a negative.

            Luke, still gliding slowly down the corridor where a battle had obviously occurred, nodded once to himself.  One lifeform, ahead and to the left of him.  One lifeform that he could feel from here that was dying.  It wasn't Mara.

            He hoped that his assurance was more from the Force, than from wishful thinking.

            "Hello?" He now called softly toward an open door on his left near the end of the corridor.  "I'm Jedi Master Luke Skywalker.  Do you need help?"

            A low groan answered him, and the sound of labored breathing.

            Luke didn't sense any malice towards him specifically, so he quickened his pace somewhat.  Being extremely cautious, he peeked around the corner of the doorframe and found a short human male with a hole in his stomach.  He panted for every short breath while blood pumped onto the floor from his apparent lightsaber wound.

            Luke swiftly hooked his lightsaber back onto his belt and knelt by the man's side, oblivious to the blood seeping into his gathered robe.

            "Calm," he said, as he focused on the man's presence in the Force.  "Who did this to you?"

            The little man panted faster.  "She…gave…no na-…me…"

            Luke frowned.  "Did she have red hair?"  He was sure Mara had not done this deed--unless she had been fighting for her life.

            "No…" The man gasped.  "Light…brown…gray…eyes…"

            Luke's eyes widened and his heart stilled in his chest.  Gray eyes….light brown hair…That took his list of suspects to only one. 

            "Where did she take Mara?" Luke asked, forcing his voice to remain calm.

            The man tried to shake his head, but stopped his motion almost before it had begun.  "She…gave…message…"

            "Take your time…" Luke soothed him, though he could feel that the man was almost dead.

            The man stared directly into Luke's eyes.  "Said…go…to where…you…began to…know you were…different…She'll…be…wait…" and he slumped, dead, to the floor.

            Luke narrowed his eyes as he stood slowly.  Go to where he first began to notice he was different?  That could only be Tatooine.  Why would she take Mara to Tatooine?

            "Artoo?" He called as he strolled swiftly back toward where he had docked his X-wing.  "Set a course for Tatooine.  Have the ship ready to go by the time I get back to you."

            Artoo trilled something at him.

            Luke nodded once, then said, "Yes, Mara is there.  And Callista better hope she hasn't harmed a single hair on her head…"


	4. Chapter Four

Chapter Four

            Luke dreamed on his way to Tatooine.  Mostly he dreamed of his childhood with Uncle Own and Aunt Beru…but then he dreamed of Callista.

            He dreamed of how they met on the Eye of the Palpatine…him tired, aching and badly wounded, trying to save the ship and the beings who had been forced into it.  She a ghost of a Jedi Knight from years before, trapped in the machine, but finally working with him to help save the beings she had not taken an interest in since her death.

            Meeting in a series of dream sequences.  Falling in love.  

            Her leaving him, because after she took over Cray Mingla's body she had lost just about all access to the Force.  All but one…the dark side.

            She had left him, claiming to wish him to have a happy life with someone who could give him great and powerful Jedi children.

            Her actions now surprised him.

            Why had she suddenly changed her mind?  Why had she taken away the one thing in his life that he truly, deeply, passionately loved?

            He had loved her once—he loved Mara so much deeply now.  They were one in a way that he had only glimpsed with Callista.  Nothing Callista did now would endear her to him…she had to know that.

            Then why was she doing this?

            Troubled, he drifted in and out in dreams.

            Mara glared at Callista through the rock she was imprisoned in.  "You sicken me," she spat at her, not for the first time since waking on Tatooine almost a day ago.  Callista was using her dark side powers to keep her from getting too near the bars of the door of the cave she was held in.

           Callista merely smiled, a strange expression on a face that twisted with hate every time she looked at Luke's beloved.  "You will see.  He will come.  And then he will be mine."

            "But you gave him up!" Mara protested, exasperated.  "You told him so, even after he came for you when you told him not too.  What did you want him to do, live a life alone and miserable?  You told him to find someone else!"

            The gray-eyed beauty stared implacably at Mara. "Yes, but I told him to find someone better than I.  Not someone…like you."

            Mara growled and tried to get at Callista through the bars, but a strong shock traveled through her body at the contact.  "You promised us you would leave us alone!" she reminded the other woman, rubbing her arm.

            Callista tilted her head to the side.  "That was before I had time to think about it more.  You aren't good enough for him; you were the Emperor's Hand, for Force's sake!  How ill-suited a match can that be?  You don't appreciate his honesty, his integrity and innocence.  Yes, innocence, for he still has innocence even after every trial through the dark he has gone through."

            "Trials that you weren't there for!" Mara shot at her. "You left him alone when he needed someone the most!  What does that say about how much, or how little, you actually cared for him?"

            Callista's eyes shot with sparks and she took a step toward Mara. "You have no idea what it was like to cut him loose!" She screamed at the redhead. "I had to watch the holonews for any sign of him, to make sure that he was alive and all right.  I worried every day that he would finally lose against a Dark Jedi.  And where were you, during his trials?  Off with your smuggler pals, or trying to kill him!"

            Mara shook with anger and had to restrain herself from reaching through the bars and ignoring the sting of them long enough to strange Callista right then and there.  "I was there for him should he need me.  Neither of us knew that we loved the other, until it was almost too late.  Once we both knew it, we never looked back, never gave up on each other.  And I do appreciate his honesty and integrity; I find them refreshing and wholesome, something that I didn't get a lot of while growing up.  You have no idea what my life has been like, Callista.  You take what the holonews has shown since our wedding and you've used it and twisted it the way that suits what you want."

            "Yes," came a soft voice from behind them. "It seems she has."

            Both women turned their heads to see Luke standing quietly in the sand, seeming almost to blend in with his surroundings.  Mara had not seen him on Tatooine since before he turned 22, when he killed Jabba, and was proud of the way that he stood, strong, in the fading light of the twin suns.

            "Luke," Callista said with a smile as she walked toward him.  "I have much to say to you.  I thought this way I would most definitely gain your undivided attention."

            Luke gazed at Callista coldly, and Mara was glad that she had never had that particular look of her husband's directed at her. "No, Callista.  You've said quite enough.  I've heard much from over here."  He shifted his stance as Callista neared him, and Mara was interested to note that his right hand strayed near his lightsaber.  She wondered if he could use his lightsaber on a woman that he had once loved.

            Callista pointed a thin finger at Mara.  "Oh, I think you'll hear me out.  I do have control over her life right now.  And I'm not asking much, am I?  Just a talk.  Why don't you come over here and sit so you don't have to stand the whole time?" She guided him to where there was a slightly indention in the sand.

            Mara felt the pull of her danger sense mere seconds before Luke stepped on the slightly different colored, disturbed sand.

            "Luke!" She gasped.

            Luke hit the cleverly disguised hole and fell fast.  He quickly dropped out of her line of sight and her ears strained to hear him land, safely.  Finally, she heard the dim echo of his booted feet hitting stone, then a stumble.

            "What…what happened?" She demanded to know.

            Callista smiled at her, and this time her face seemed pure evil.  "Oh, he just took a little tumble into a kyyrat dragon cave, that's all.  You see, I'm still of the opinion that if I can't have him, no one can—that includes you."

            She laughed as she walked away, down the hill to where she had a tent sent up for sleeping.

            Leaving Mara to stare in horror at the gaping hole that Luke had disappeared into.


	5. Chapter Five

Chapter Five

            Luke woke slowly and groaned.  He had hit his head on something sharp on the way down and had blacked out, but for how long?  Callista was sure to not waste any opportunity that presented itself to her.

            Callista.  He should have never trusted to take even one step with Callista beside him…not with Mara imprisoned.  What had happened to the level-headed Knight he had fallen in love with?  He supposed the dark side had completely changed her, that the lure to power of any kind had seduced her.  It was a shame, really.  She had been such a strong presence in his life when he had desperately needed someone.

            Now Mara filled that role, and so much more.  And she might die before he could get back to the surface to save her.

            But how to get out of the kyyrat hole?  He glanced up to see the hole so far above him and the twin suns setting.  Even with Jedi abilities there was no way he could get himself high enough to just leap out of here.

            And getting out of here was the first priority, and a fast one.  Kyyrat dragons usually roused at evening to roam the sands at night.  From the large, unevenly rounded space he found himself in, he guessed he must be in the kyyrat's main hole.  Which meant he needed to either get out, or find a really good place to hide until the kyyrat left for the night.

            Slowly, Luke dusted himself off and surveyed the chamber better. The stone was damp and cool, the way kyyrat's liked to keep their lairs on this hot and miserable planet.

            _"Something that would do anything to hurt you,"_ he remembered Wennai saying to him, and he sighed.  Well, he now had two suspects on that list…Callista…and the kyyrat dragon.

            Cautiously, he took a step, then winced in pain.  Evidently, his 'fast escape' had just been slowed considerably.  He wasn't sure if he had broken or sprained his ankle, but either way he wasn't going to be able to go quickly.

            He sighed.  Looked like he'd have to find a way to hide.  Using the Force to help him sense ahead of him, he began limping farther into the dragon's hole.

            Mara woke with a start in her small cave.  Luke was awake, and in pain.  She narrowed her green eyes.  Callista was being more than just a trifle childish in this whole affair.  What ever happened to loosing gracefully?

            She sighed.  Luke was not going to be able to hardly help himself, let alone her.  Once again, she would have to fend for herself.  Oh, not that her husband didn't try, but sometimes living a life with the Emperor had its own advantages.

            As in lessons on how to break past any kind of electronic lock's code system.

            The problem was only in reaching hers.

            Callista was a stupid woman, but she wasn't a complete idiot.  She had placed the controls for the lock, and the actual lock, in the hardest possible places to reach.

            Mara smiled.  Yet, Callista was still out of her league when dealing with the ex-Emperor's Hand.  She was never without resources of some kind.

            She reached down deep into her boot.  She wasn't after her boot knife—it was already gone, taken by Callista.  What she wanted was much smaller, thinner, and harder to detect.

            Her lockpick.

            Mara smirked as she pulled it out of her boot.  Married to a Jedi Master she may be, but she still never went anywhere without it.

            Now she needed to survey the lock better, but the angle it was situated at made it extremely hard to see or reach.  She squinted at what she could see and discovered that Callista had made a bigger mistake than she had realized.

            The lock to her little cave was a very simple lined electronic lock.  All she had to do was somehow get the lined portion of the lock to be disrupted…the lock would pop open and she'd be free.

            That just left her with how to reach it.

            Mara bit a portion of her lip as she thought, then sighed.  She would have to touch the bars.  This would not be pleasant.  She gritted her teeth, got a firm grip on her lockpick and then reached through the bars.

            Almost immediately, she felt the current run through her arm to travel through her body.  She tried to use techniques Luke had taught her on how to shunt pain aside, and marginally succeeded.  Once most of the distraction that the pain and uncomfortableness caused was gone, she concentrated again on the lock.

            Her arm just reached…her fingertips brushed the bottom of the lockbox that the controls were contained in.  All she had to do was find a way to interrupt the flow of the charge to the lock's alignment.

            She thought a moment.  Perhaps…

            Mara smiled, then tilted the lockpick at a right angle to where the lockbox was.  She tightly focused into the Force and felt where the lockpick was in front of her.  Slowly, she bent the pick into a spiral shape.  Once she was done, she once again brought the lockpick to the box.  She waved the spiral in-between where it seemed as if nothing was except for two durasteel rectangles.

            There was a slight hum as the electricity around her, passing through her, intensified.  For a moment, though, nothing else happened.

            Then, with no ceremony at all, the door popped up as the electricity field shut off.

            Stealthily, Mara crept out of the cave, glad to stretch her muscles freely.  Her eyes immediately sought the tent where Callista was, then spun back to the hole where Luke had fallen and was injured.  She didn't want Callista escaping, but she didn't want Luke to have to face the kyyrat dragon that was still down there alone and injured in the fast-approaching dark.

            She sighed.  Her duty to her husband came first.  Even if Callista discovered her missing and left, she was sure the insane beauty would try to get at them again.

            Almost as if it were re-enforcing her decision, she heard a loud roar and the ground underneath her shook slightly.  Luke must have found the dragon, and by his sudden busy sense in the Force, the dragon was not happy.  A flash of pain from her husband and the sense of grim determination that she knew he got when he was facing very low odds.  He needed her.

            Taking a deep breath, Mara jumped down the hole.


	6. Chapter Six

Chapter Six

            Luke found himself in a very large underground tunnel after about ten minutes of painfully slow limping.  The tunnel he was in had sloped downward from the start, making walking even more precarious for him.  It was pitch dark now in the chamber, all light from the outside that had bounced off of the rocks to illuminate the tunnel and chamber gone. 

            The kyyrat dragon would be stirring soon.

            Unfortunately, he had to turn on his lightsaber for illumination so he would find a place to hide from the dragon until morning when it slept.  He stretched out with his senses and felt the kyyrat dragon.  It was always harder to feel exact distances with alien minds, and doubly so for alien animals.  When he had lived here as a boy and young man, he had had no Force training at all in order to sense the animals—though not even his boyish recklessness had ever prompted him to seek out a kyyrat dragon's lair.

            "Reckless is he…" Yoda's raspy voice echoed in his ears, and he smiled grimly as he unhooked his lightsaber.  His recklessness had mostly evaporated as he got older, but even he had to acknowledge that igniting a lightsaber in a very dark chamber was an extremely risky thing to do.

            Sighing, he lit the glowing green blade.

            One very large gold eye stared directly at him, bare centimeters from where he stood.  The eye itself was as tall as he was.

            Yoda would not be pleased.

            Even as he thought it, he was rolling away from the awakened kyyrat dragon, leaving the lightsaber on to aide him in his escape, even while knowing that it made him extremely easy to locate.  Behind him, the kyyrat let out a loud roar that shook the chamber and the dirt earth floor that Luke ran on, limping, pain shooting through his ankle.  He had just spotted a recess in the chamber wall that looked just big enough for him to squeeze into.  If he could reach it, then he could stay there until the kyyrat lost interest in him to find easier prey.

            He almost succeeded.  As he neared the crevasse, his aching ankle suddenly refused to hold any more of his weight.

            _Definitely broke it_, he thought as he found himself slamming into the ground.

            He immediately brought his lightsaber up above his head to guard himself from the kyyrat who had turned its long, slender body around to follow his movements.  It saw its prey fall and had swooped its long neck down to snap at it, but the glowing presence of his lightsaber brought a pain-filled howl from it.

            Luke panted, knowing he was stuck where he was for the moment.  The kyyrat wasn't going to let him move another inch, and he wasn't going to be able to walk or run the short distance he needed.  Determination filled him.  He had faced odds worse than this before.  Legs encased in ice with a hungry wampa stalking him, not even very trained in the usage of the Force, and he had survived—though barely.  Han Solo had been there to save him, and now Han and Leia were on Coruscant with their children.

            So what was an injured Jedi to do?

            Luke wasn't given an opportunity to think about it.  The kyyrat dragon suddenly swooped down, faster than Luke would have thought possible for a creature of its size and bulk.  The Jedi was barely able to twist his body around, swinging his legs around, to avoid the kyyrat's bite.  The only thing the kyyrat managed to do was knock his lightsaber out of his hand with its large whisker-like fur on the side of its face, causing the lightsaber to roll toward the wall.  Luke thankfully had had the foresight to lock it on so that even when away from his hand it would not turn off, providing light for him to see by.

            The kyyrat saw that its prey was now unarmed and struck again.  One huge tooth caught his shoulder, digging into the flesh.

            Luke cried out in pain, barely noticing that the kyyrat was picking his body off the ground as it drew its head back, its tooth lodged deep in Luke's shoulder to protrude out the other side.  Desperately, Luke used his palms to try to gain some kind of leverage on the slippery tooth to pull himself off but he couldn't get a good hold.

            He was near the ceiling when the kyyrat shook its head vigorously and Luke was slung, hard, into the wall.  His head bounced off the stone, an arm snapped from the impact, and he felt himself falling.  He was too rattled to concentrate on the Force to slow his descent.

            The ground rushed up to meet him, and his only regret was that Mara was still trapped by Callista and wouldn't know what had happened to him.

            Mara raced into a large chamber, guided by the weak green light of a lightsaber.  All she could sense from Luke was great pain and a flurry of activity.  She hoped she had not waited too long to make her decision.

            She skidded to a halt when she took in the long, serpant-like body of the kyyrat dragon filling the chamber.  It shook its head, as if irritated by something, and Luke's body went flying through the air to smack into the stone near the top of the chamber.  His Force sense went quieter, indicating a dimming of his awareness.  For him to lose consciousness now would not be a good thing.

            Luke started falling toward the floor.

            Mara gasped, then mentally cursed even as she flung out her hand to catch her husband in a Force-grip.  She was not nearly as good with the direct manipulation of the Force like this like Luke was, but he needed her now or he would slam into the floor and break his neck.  She slit her eyes in concentration and her hand shook with the effort of trying to keep her husband from becoming one with the Force.

            Finally, Luke's body slowed and settled gently to the floor.  Quickly, as the kyyrat swung around to the other thing behind it, she called Luke's lightsaber to her hand.  The cool metal cylinder was heavy and awkward to her smaller hand, but for this battle finesse was not needed.

            Even as the dragon was snapping at her, she was no longer there.  She twisted and somersaulted through the air to land midway up the body of the long dragon's body.  She wasted no time for the kyyrat to figure out where she went and ran up its body toward its head.  Its scales were slippery and footing was treacherous, but she grimly kept herself balanced, knowing that now with her gone it would focus on the prey that no longer moved.

            Right as the kyyrat dragon nudged Luke's unmoving form with its snout to make sure that this prey was not going to bite back again, she reached the top of its head. 

            "Mess with my husband…" she muttered, then plunged Luke's lightsaber deep into the kyyrat dragon's head.

            The kyyrat screamed, the sound echoing back and forth in the chamber, rumbling the walls.  Rocks from the ceiling began to fall, but those for the moment were not her primary concern.  She suddenly found herself on a buckling kyyrat dragon.  She lost her footing and fell backwards off of the head to tumble toward the ground in an eerie parody of Luke's fall.

            Suddenly, she stopped her plunge and was lowered gently to the ground.  She gathered her feet underneath her and raced over to where Luke was laying, sweat covering his forehead from his effort to save her while injured.  On her way to her husband, she had to duck the lashing tail of the dragon in its death throes.

            "Luke!" She dropped down to her knees beside him, pressing his lightsaber that she had somehow managed to keep a hold of during her fall to his hand.  His fingers were puffy and turning a bluish color, indicating a severe break.  She instead hooked it to his belt.  "Can you stand?"  She tried to ignore the sounds of the still dying kyyrat and the rocks falling down around them.

            Luke gave a shaky laugh.  "Whether or not I…can, it seems…as if I have…to," he gasped out.  "Help me up?"

            Mara smiled at him and shook her head.  "Farmboys…always getting into some sort of trouble on their own."    She helped him as he got his feet underneath him, and took most of his weight as his left ankle threatened to collapse again.  She frowned.  "Is that the same leg you injured on the _Eye of the Palpatine_?"

            Luke cut her a look and she laughed.  "Oh, the irony," she remarked, then left the subject alone. 

            She and Luke gazed at the dying kyyrat dragon, now settling to the ground in its final resting pose. 

            Luke frowned.  "Pity…" He gasped out as she started helping him back out of the tunnel toward the hole they had both used to get to the dragon.

            She glanced at him.  Trust him to feel sorry for something that had tried to eat him for dinner.  On closer inspection, she saw that he looked very pale and he shook uncontrollably.  She feverantly hoped that his little contact with the stone wall hadn't damaged anything internally.

            One ice-blue eye caught her green one.  Quietly, he said to her thought, "I'm…not sure…have to go into…healing trance to see." He glanced to where he could now see the gaping hole and stars of planets.  "Have to…get out of here…first.  Join me?"

            Immediately, she knew what he wanted to do and nodded.  She positioned them directly in the middle of the hole, then closed her eyes.  Swiftly, the two Jedi joined their powers, themselves, together as if in battle.  The greater power tingled Mara's skin and she directed it to help her and Luke leap out of the hole. 

            Then she was shooting out of the hole, Luke by her side, and she had to open her eyes again to see where to land safely in the night of the desert.  She took the brunt of the impact and rolled slightly so that Luke would not further injure himself with a harsh landing.

            Luke lay, gasping and coughing, on the sand.  A cool breeze blew his sandy-brown hair from his forehead, and for the first time Mara felt afraid.

            "Let me ease you into a healing trance…" Mara offered, a small smile that was mostly bravery on her lips.

            Luke nodded and smiled at her.  "Set…up…code…" he forced out.

            Mara nodded once.  They had a running code phrase whenever the other needed a healing trance for any reason.  It had started when he had thought she would be killed and came after her, dropping all his other Jedi duties for her—one person.  In order to both survive, he had sunk her into a healing trance that she had set up a phrase to snap her out of it shortly after he proposed.  What a proposal that was—neither had known if they would survive from that situation…and here they were with another bleak situation.

            "Sleep well, farmboy," she whispered as he sank into the healing rest of Jedi hibernation. 

            Then she unhooked his lightsaber from his belt.

            "I have unfinished business to attend to."  She narrowed her eyes and stood.  Callista's tent was only a few meters away. 

            She cleared her mind of anger and hate, and began to walk toward the tent.


	7. Chapter Seven

Apologies on the long wait for this chapter. I had to get ready to go back to college in another state...then move...then get settled. But at last here it is. Enjoy! :} Chapter Seven  
  
Mara crouched in the darkness, watching and waiting. She kept her senses on high alert, but to every appearance it seemed as if Callista were asleep in her tent.  
Mara had never trusted appearances.  
When she had been the Emperor's Hand, Palpatine had taught her a trick to shut her mind down so that another Force user could not sense her presence. Since being engaged to Luke, she had not used her old defensive patterns—she had had no need. Now, even after being out of practice, she had found that it was fairly easy to use these defensive techniques again.  
The real question was if Callista, since the older woman was a Jedi Knight from Palpatine's time, would know how to use the same techniques. If so, could she use it with her access to the Force being very limited?  
Mara was about to find out.  
Stealthily, she crept up to Callista's tent, her eyes, ears and Force- senses alert. The quiet of the desert night grated on her nerves. As she neared Callista's tent, she suddenly felt that something had gone terribly wrong. The Force screamed at her to return to where Luke was laying, trying to recover from his tangle with the kyrat dragon.  
Mara wasted no time in returning to her husband, but even then found she was too late. A sand camouflaged Callista stood over Luke, her lightsaber on and raised above his motionless head.  
Callista smirked at Mara. "You're too predictable."  
Mara hid her anger at herself. Of course Callista would not have been in her tent. The woman would have heard the kyrat dragon's death scream and known instantly what had happened.  
"I knew that that stupidly fragile cage wouldn't hold you for long and you'd go dashing to his rescue," Callista continued, her yellow lightsaber a gleam of deadly light held directly above the center of Luke's chest. Mara didn't dare make a false move while Callista was positioned above Luke, and they both knew it.  
"What do you want?" Mara said quite calmly. Her mind, though, raced furiously, trying to figure out how to save her greatly injured husband.  
Callista glanced at her as if she were a speeder without an engine. "For you to leave Luke with me...and stay away from us forever."  
Mara slowly inched her hand toward her lightsaber. She kept talking to distract the gray-eyed beauty's attention from being directed to what she was doing. "You could keep him for now," she pointed out logically, "but what will you do once he is recovered? You and I both know that he has a mind of his own and will do as he wishes."  
Callista shifted slightly and Mara had the feeling that she had been standing there for a while, waiting for Mara to return. That could prove useful to Mara.  
"In time, if he is only given it, he will see he still loves me. He loved me first, you know," her tone was wistful.  
Mara glanced at the other woman sharply, for the first time alerted to the fact that Callista might not be entirely mentally stable. What had happened to make her that way Mara didn't know, and really didn't care. It was simply another weakness for her to exploit later.  
Callista's gaze caught Mara's. "You won't give him up, will you?"  
Mara shook her head, her red hair flying about her face. It must have gone undone from its braid in the fight with the kyrat dragon. "You know better than that," she said in a gentle tone, as if she were talking to a child who did not quite understand why they could not jump from Coruscant's highest building.  
Callista nodded once. "Then perhaps we should solve the choice for him," she said.  
Mara let a smile play on her lips as she smoothly unhooked Luke's lightsaber from her belt. "Gladly," she responded.  
Callista slowly walked backwards, leaving Luke unprotected. Mara briefly bent down, checking on his progress through the Force. His sense was weak—he needed more intensive medical treatment for his internal wounds.  
This will be quick, my love, she promised him as she narrowed her eyes and stood again, facing Callista.  
The two woman took themselves a few paces from where Luke lay in order to not trip over him during the battle. Mara watched Callista carefully, determined that it would be she that began the ending to this feud.  
Callista obliged her by spinning around, whipping her lightsaber across to slice Mara's midsection. Mara thumbed on Luke's lightsaber as she ducked backwards to avoid the strike, knowing that Callista was just testing her. Callista struck three times more, always fluidly, almost unhurriedly. Mara easily blocked her each time, wondering when the old Jedi would begin in earnest.  
"Don't play around," Mara said easily. "Let me see what you really can do."  
Callista took a half-step backwards and let a smile play on her lips. "Oh? You think you're ready?"  
Mara waved the glowing green blade. "I know I am."  
Suddenly Callista spun a second lightsaber into her other hand—Mara's lightsaber that had also once been Luke's. The blue blade hummed quietly.  
  
"Then let us begin," the other woman remarked.  
Callista leaped at her, bearing both lightsabers down, each in a different direction. Mara was forced to hastily knock the blue blade aside and then dive out of the way of Callista's own blade. She landed on her back, and found both lightsabers already striking at her legs. She tucked her legs to the side, though her left was nicked by Luke's old blade before she could safely get it out of the way. She hissed in pain and rolled back onto her feet, feeling warm blood trickle down her injured leg.  
Callista raised an eyebrow mockingly. "Having problems?"  
"Of course not. What ever gave you that idea?" Mara spat out. "I'm doing just fine against someone who cheats to win."  
"I never cheat, Mara," Callista chuckled. "I merely find an advantage. Or create one."  
Mara decided that she had done enough defensive fighting. It was time to bring this to an end—Luke needed serious help. Without another word, she charged at Callista, making it seem that she would swing her lightsaber around in a two-handed grip at the older woman's stomach. At the last second, she dropped to her knees to slide on the sand underneath Callista, stabbing behind her back as she did so.  
Callista grunted in pain. When Mara turned back around, she saw that she had gouged a small hole in the other woman's side, indicating that Callista had sensed something and turned at the last second to avoid the killing stroke.  
"Now who's creating an advantage?" Callista hissed.  
Mara smiled mockingly. "I don't need to create one, Callista. I am an advantage." So saying, she spun around in a spinning side-kick that caught Callista squarely in her injured side.  
Callista let out a clipped yell and tried to swing Luke's lightsaber around at Mara, but Mara was no longer there. She had dropped to the side, rolled, and came at Callista's exposed flank. She swung Luke's lightsaber hard, hoping to make contact.  
Unfortunately, Callista managed to block her swing with her own lightsaber. As the yellow and green blade tangled, Callista heaved the blue blade up at Mara. Mara was forced to quickly back away to avoid being neatly sliced in half...but she hadn't noticed that they had gotten close to Luke again. As she backed up, she tripped on Luke's outstretched arm and fell down hard.  
Callista immediately held both lightsabers over Mara's head. She was panting heavily, blood running down her side to mix with sweat. Mara glared up at her, though she really felt no anger, just disappointment in herself. She lay beside the shallowly breathing Luke and rapidly thought out a plan that she wasn't quite sure would work, but she had no other options.  
Callista smiled grimly. "Any last words, Jade?"  
Mara nodded. "Yes, but not to you." She glanced over at Luke and said, "I love you."  
Callista scoffed. "He's in a trance—you just wasted your words. Now it's time for you to go and leave a space for me in his life." The older woman turned off Luke's older blade and tossed it to the side...where it quietly rolled into Luke's slack hand.  
The brown-haired woman smiled with self-congratulation. "He's mine," she crowed, then slammed her lightsaber down toward Mara's chest.  
The lightsaber never reached Mara. So intent on finishing off Mara, Callista had never seen nor sensed Luke wake up at the code phrase and pretend to be unconscious. He had sensed immediately Mara's predicament and known what to do. As Callista's yellow blade flashed downward, Luke heaved himself up on a hand and pressed his lightsaber into Callista's back, then thumbed it on in one smooth movement.  
Callista shrieked in surprise and rage as the laser of deadly light passed through her, melting her insides. Her gray eyes stared in shock at Luke's stricken, pain-filled ice-blue ones before her life faded and she slumped, dead, to the ground near Mara.  
Luke collapsed.  
Mara knelt beside him. "Luke? Luke, answer me!"  
Luke coughed, wincing in pain. In a very quiet voice, he answered, "I...love you..."  
"No!" Mara's green eyes widened. Had that one movement cost him so much? She finally began to fully see how well he was hiding the depth of his injuries from her. "No, Luke! I refuse to let this happen!"  
She focused into the Force faster and more deeply than she ever had before. She drew on as much of the living Force that she could, pulling it to her to fill her body. Only when she felt as if she would die if she held one ounce more did she stop and then pass it on to Luke with a single, desperate thought. 


	8. Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight  
  
Leia woke with a start. Laying in bed beside her husband, with her children safe in their rooms, the universe was quiet and peaceful where she was—for once.  
So what had wakened her?  
Even as she wondered it, she suddenly knew.  
Han propped himself up on an elbow beside her in the darkness. Even after several years of relative peace, he could still wake quickly and alert at any sudden, subtle chance during the night.  
"Trouble?" He asked quietly.  
Leia stretched out in the Force. "It's Luke..." she murmured as she tried to determine what exactly about her brother had wakened her. Before she could fully sense what it was that had startled her awake, Jaina, Jacen and Anakin ran into their room.  
The teenagers had identical expressions of worry on their faces.  
"Mom!" Jaina gushed, her eyes wide.  
Jacen, as usual, finished his sister's thought. "It's Uncle Luke!"  
Anakin was very pale. Quietly, more reserved than his older brother and sister, he added, "He's dying."  
Han was shocked, but Leia simply nodded.  
"What should we do?" Jaina fretted.  
Leia thought for a moment. When Anakin had been a newborn, she had been taught a few old Jedi techniques by Vima de Boda. The old Jedi had mainly shown her battle techniques, but there were other things about healing that she had been shown that Luke had tried to teach her in earlier years and she had just not paid attention to. She knew them now.  
"Join me in the Force," Leia ordered as she sat up to make room for her children on the bed. Han also scooted his legs up. Quickly, the three teenagers scrambled onto the bed and settled themselves around their mother.  
Leia closed her eyes and gathered her children's Force signatures to her.  
Help him heal...  
She did not know if that thought was hers, or from someone else. The only thing she did know was the feeling that her brother was slipping away from her.  
A surge in the Force—a swirling, a gathering—suddenly occurred. Leia felt herself being pulled along. At the source, she felt Mara's desperation to save her love.  
"Help me..." Mara's voice pleaded. "Keep him here with me..."  
Leia felt her brother slipping away fast, though she also sensed him fighting to stay alive. Without conscious thought or action, she pooled herself into the Force, providing an anchor for her twin to keep him in the world of life. She dimly sensed her children giving their uncle strength as Mara's Force sense desperately held onto her husband's.  
After what seemed like only a few minutes, Luke's sense brightened and steadied, reversing from the dim flicker that he had been. Leia was relieved. Jaina, Jacen, and Anakin pulled away, their task done, but Leia lingered.  
"Thank you, Leia," she heard Luke whisper; then he settled into a healing trance.  
Leia blinked, suddenly finding herself back on her bed. To her great surprise, it was full morning and several hours had passed. Her three kids were slumped on the bed in various positions, exhausted but happy.  
"Well?" She heard Han ask tensely.  
She smiled tiredly at him and leaned against him. "He's safe, for now. Contact Mara on her comlink to find out where they are and how long to expect them. He's going to need a lot of medical attention." Then she fell asleep. 


	9. Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine  
  
Mara watched Luke as he floated, unconscious, in a bacta tank on Coruscant. He had been in this position for two days now and she admitted to herself that he looked a lot better than when he first went into the pink fluid. The doctors had healed his broken arm by resetting it and wrapping it in bacta patches for a double dosage of the healing liquid. His leg and his internal injuries were proving to be more bothersome.  
"Jedi Skywalker, there is a call for you," one of the aides called out into the large room that housed the bacta tanks.  
Mara turned around and walked toward the small communit kept for the families of those critically ill and injured. She activated the comm, and was surprised to see little Wennai Dru'ya on the other end, a patient Kyp Durron standing behind her.  
"What is it, Wennai?" Mara asked, sitting down to get the weight off of her mostly-healed leg.  
The Bothan girl gazed at her. "I see Master Luke found you."  
Mara felt a chill go down her spine. She and Luke had both been impressed by how strongly connected to the Force this small Bothan child was at such a young age. Usually, her visions through the Force always came true.  
Cautiously, Mara asked, "And what did you see?"  
Wennai blinked her small eyes at her, hesitating. Kyp murmured encouraging words and she finally said, "No trouble now. But...just a few days ago...Master Luke died."  
Mara's heart stopped in her chest, before her brain caught back up with her. Wennai was not old enough yet to properly put her visions into perspective. She must be talking about a vision she had. Soothingly, Mara told the girl, "He almost did, Wennai. But he is recovering now." She paused, then asked haltingly, "Did...you see...anything else?"  
Wennai glanced back at Kyp, who nodded. She sighed and answered, "He will heal, but needs to be resting." She gave Mara a look far older than her own years to emphasize her meaning.  
Mara burst out laughing. "Put Kyp on," she choked out between fits of mirth.  
Kyp grinned into the screen as Wennai jumped down. "I thought you might find that one amusing, Mara," the younger Jedi told her.  
Mara shook her head, still chuckling. "Someone needs to grow up faster, I see, or we might all be caught in embarrassment by her visions before she gains the tactfulness she will need."  
Kyp chuckled, then sobered. "So Master Skywalker is...okay now?"  
"For now, though he has some severe internal injuries," Mara answered quietly, all mirth gone now. Some would find Kyp Durron asking about Luke strange in the extreme since it was he in his younger days who had almost killed Luke while under the influence of Dark Lord Exar Kun. Mara didn't particularly like him herself, but trusted Luke's judgment on the younger man. "He's staying in a healing trance to speed his internal healing. The doctors say that he will be released in a week."  
Kyp nodded. "I will pass on the good news to the students. We had...several worried children here a few days ago."  
"As was I, Kyp," Mara replied, standing. "I will keep you updated."  
Kyp nodded again. "Until then, may the Force be with you."  
"And you." She signed off.  
  
Once Luke emerged from his healing trance two days later, the doctors could not keep him in the tank. He insisted on coming out to see his family, who were gathered in the waiting area. It was an exasperated doctor who came out to tell them that he was awake and wanted to see them.  
Mara ran to Luke and melted into her husband's arms, letting him hold her, though conscious of the fact that he was still healing. She buried her face into his neck, letting her feelings of love for him flow to him through the Force.  
Someone cleared their throat behind them.  
Mara turned, glaring at Han, who had an innocent look on his face to indicate his guilt. "Shove it, Solo," she growled, though half in play as she reluctantly stepped away from Luke.  
Leia was next to hug her brother. He patted her back and murmured words that none of the others could hear into her ears as they embraced. When Leia joined Mara, there were tears in her eyes, unshed.  
Jaina, Jacen and Anakin shoved their way in front of their father. The three teenagers were careful in their expresses of love, scared of hurting their uncle, whom had never seemed so frail as he did in that moment. He stood in a white robe, his skin clinging to his bones and his eyes tired, though his Force presence was as strong as ever.  
Finally, Han and Chewbacca were left. Chewie squeezed Luke as gently as a Wookie could, though Luke was even paler once the hairy friend had let him go. Chewie whuffed at him and Luke nodded, used to his friend's language enough by now to guess at what he said.  
Then it was Han's turn. Han wordlessly gave Luke a hearty hug, then quickly stepped away. He cleared his throat before speaking. "You know, kid, you've got to stop waking Leia and me up like that," he tried to joke. "We'll never get any...um, sleep."  
Luke laughed shakily and wavered a little on his still healing leg. Mara quickly summoned a chair and he sank gratefully into it, now looking up at his family.  
"Thank you all," he said quietly, locking gazes with each of them in turn, even Han. No one needed to ask what he was thanking them for.  
Mara knelt by his side and grabbed his face, bringing him to her for a fierce and passionate kiss. When they had parted, she touched her forehead with his and whispered, "I don't need gray hairs yet, farmboy, we've only been married a year."  
Luke laughed and brought her into another embrace.  
  
THE END 


End file.
